COMPANY NEWS

COMPANY NEWS; Broader Use Of Macintosh Software Set

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: January 21, 1992

A Silicon Valley company plans to announce a program on Wednesday that permits users and developers to run programs designed for Apple Computer's Macintosh on Sun, I.B.M. and Silicon Graphics work stations. It will be the first significant attempt to use software designed for the Macintosh on other computers.

The company, Quorum Software Systems, said that it had shown the software to Apple executives and that the companies were discussing possible licensing or other arrangements.

The aim of the program is to move the software to more powerful computers that use reduced instruction set computing, or RISC, processors. These machines are generally considered significantly faster than personal computers, which are based on conventional chips made by the Intel Corporation or Motorola Inc. But because they have been sold for engineering and scientific applications, they have little standard business software. Re-creating the Mac 'Toolbox'

"The wide variety of software that exists for the Macintosh is just not available for work stations," said Sheldon Breiner, president of Quorum, which is based in Menlo Park, Calif.

The Quorum software works by re-creating a crucial part of the Macintosh known as the "toolbox" on the work stations. The developers said they did not copy the toolbox, which is a set of low-level software instructions, but created a compatible version from reading publicly available literature from Apple.

Until now, Apple opposed other companies that copied the appearance of its software and attempted to make Macintosh-compatible computers. Apple has sued the Microsoft Corporation and the Hewlett-Packard Company, saying Microsoft's Windows program for I.B.M. and I.B.M.-compatible computers illegally copies the appearance of Apple's Macintosh program known as the Finder.

In the past, a number of companies have tried to directly re-engineer Apple's toolbox software routines to make computers compatible with the Macintosh. But these developers have been threatened with legal action and have not had a significant effect on the market. Different 'Look and Feel'

But Quorum executives said they had not copied the distinctive Macintosh software's appearance, referred to as "look and feel," and had not copied Apple's software. Instead, when the Macintosh program runs on the work stations it will take on the appearance of the new computer's native interface.

Last year, Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., drastically changed its business strategy. It is now trying to increase its market share by lowering the price of its machines and actively seeking alliances based on sharing its technology. As a result, a number of analysts said it was less likely Apple would oppose the new software effort.

Apple technical experts have met with Quorum and obtained details of the way the program works, but have not yet said what the company's response will be.

"We're in the first stages of evaluating the software," said Christopher Escher, an Apple spokesman.

There are a number of reasons Apple may act less restrictively in response to Quorum, analysts said. The computer maker has recently entered an alliance with I.B.M. and agreed to use I.B.M.'s RISC microprocessor in future products.

Moreover, Apple is reportedly taking a less restrictive approach toward companies that wish to make clones of its products. It is now in talks with a number of companies to directly license Macintosh technology for specific applications that do not directly compete with Apple's products.